Warsow 1.0 Is A Nice Game, Decent GL Benchmark

Warsow 1.0 was released on Sunday as a major update to this multi-platform open-source game that actually has good game artwork, is quite unique and interesting, and serves as a decent Linux OpenGL benchmark.

Among the improvements to the Qfusion engine for Warsow 1.0 include nicer curves/patches, fast and bumpmapped GLSL dynamic lights, changes to VBOs, a built-in GLSL program to render most commonly used Q3A shader stages for better VBO utilization, MD3 and IQM models now use VBOs, model and sound caching, GPU skinning dual quaternions, improved shadow mapping filters, planar shadow improvements, and much more.

Aside from the low-level technical details that excite most Phoronix readers, there's also many improvements to the game assets themselves. There's new audio, optimizations to old maps, re-texturing some maps, and plenty of other changes throughout. A Warsow 1.0 change-log along with some screenshots can be found in this Warsow thread.

The Warsow 1.0 game for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows can be downloaded from Warsow.net for free.

For those looking to benchmark Warsow, the 1.0 upstream release has already been incorporated into the Phoronix Test Suite. Benchmarking the new release is easy as running phoronix-test-suite benchmark warsow and thanks to OpenBenchmarking.org it will automatically fetch the newest test profile. Should you be interested in benchmarking the older (Warsow v0.6x) version, it's as easy as running phoronix-test-suite benchmark warsow-1.3.3. The test profile details for benchmarking Warsow under Linux and Mac OS X is available from pts/warsow on OpenBenchmarking.org.

There's already some new Warsow 1.0 benchmarks flowing in and more results will be on the way soon for future graphics card reviews, GPU driver comparisons, etc.

Embedded below is the Warsow 1.0 trailer for those who missed it from last Friday's article.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the web-site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience and being the largest web-site devoted to Linux hardware reviews, particularly for products relevant to Linux gamers and enthusiasts but also commonly reviewing servers/workstations and embedded Linux devices. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics hardware drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated testing software. He can be followed via Twitter and Google+ or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.